LOS
ANGELES - On a night when the Los Angeles Clippers humiliated the
Mavericks, throwing lobs and dunks as fast as they could, Dirk Nowitzki
could only grimace – and offer more bad news.

After
the Mavericks were smashed, 112-90, at Staples Center, Nowitzki said that
any speculation about him returning from knee surgery by the
mid-December is looking bleak.

Wednesday
was the first day that Nowitzki has done court work and while he was
limited to shooting and dribbling with no full running or cutting, it
was therapeutic for him and the Mavericks to see him working.

But he’s not close to returning.

“It
(the knee) is better,” Nowitzki said. “But now, obviously, not doing
anything for six weeks, there’s a lot of strength that you lose. Your
quad muscle gets weak. And so the last week or so we increased the work
load and tried to get the quad strength back.

“We
said from the beginning the only way I could get back on the court was
when the swelling is gone and the quad strength is back. And so we got a
long way to go.

“Now, it’s already December 5.
I don’t think middle of December is happening now to be honest. That
was my goal a couple weeks ago. But the swelling was in there too long
and it held me back too long and I couldn’t start working soon enough.”

Nowitzki
said he’s happy with the way the recovery process has gone so far in
terms of his knee feeling good. But the time-consuming nature of the
rehab has been tough for him to deal with.

“We
increased the workload and it hasn’t gotten worse,” he said. “At least
that shows we’re going in the right direction. Unfortunately a lot later
than I was hoping for.

“It’s
the first day today where I actually jogged around. So I guess it’s
improvement from where I was. I was hoping I was going to do that a lot
quicker than after six and a half weeks. But it is what it is. I got to
make the best out of it now.”

The
Mavericks will have to do the same, but it’s hard to gleen much
positivity out of the debacle against the Clippers, who were up by
double figures before the first quarter was done and had a 60-40 lead
late in the second.

Veterans
Derek Fisher, Shawn Marion and Vince Carter were about the only
positives for the Mavericks and that wasn’t nearly enough to combat 22
turnovers that the Clippers turned into 26 points. They had an
assortment of lobs and dunks that made the Mavericks look bad.

Not
that the Mavericks could blame the Clips, who rode Blake Griffin’s 19
points, Jamal Crawford’s 20 and Chris Paul’s 13 assists to the easy win.

“That’s
what they’re supposed to do,” said Elton Brand. “We’re not supposed to
let them throw 360 alley-oops, but that’s what they’re supposed to do.”

Said
coach Rick Carlisle: “I didn’t like the turnovers. I thought the
turnovers keyed most of our problems. I know they’re a more physical
team than us. I’ve been saying it consistently for a number of weeks.
Everything we do, we got to do well collectively.

“Tonight,
we fragmented at the wrong times, we turned it over and it led to an
avalanche of problems. We got a little traction in the third quarter,
and that was good, but we couldn’t sustain. We got to do better.”

One
play typified the night for the Mavericks. Down 35-29, they thought
they had Crawford penned up, but he looped an overhead pass toward the
baseline that former Texas Aggie DeAndre Jordan caught and jammed in one
motion for a thunderous bucket that brought the crowd to its feet.

That
highlighted a 22-6 blast by the Clippers that put the Mavericks in a
53-35 hole and pretty much ensured that their night was going to lean
toward the miserable side.

So
this is how it’s going to be as the Mavericks began a run of seven
games, six of which will be on the road? They will go from coast to
coast in the next 10 days.

You’d like to think it won’t get much uglier for the Mavericks, but anything’s possible.

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